WSJ objects to the "Verizon attacks Vonage" line and asks for it to be removed. Specifically they object to the somewhat disingenuous line:

"Now, Verizon has chosen to attack Vonage in the courts. Why? Could it be all about the money?"

Vonage (this is me proposing one scenario of how it might have happened) likely says "hey, we don’t have time to redo the creative so we will just line it out. Given you, Mr. WSJ, didn’t give us time you need to run it as is."

Alternatively, and even worse for WSJ, is if one of their people actually did the line out before sending it to the presses! Oh that would be rich.

WSJ editors says "OK" to amateurish revision of the ad and approve the run regardless.

Asked to identify which type of content offers the highest growth potential for their industry over the next five years, the greatest number of respondents “”

53 percent “” cited short-form video, followed by

videogames (13 percent),

full-length film (11 percent)

music, (11 percent),

consumer publishing (9 percent) and

business publishing (4 percent).

Numbered bullets added by me because I like lists. Lists are simple. But back to the topic – this is a very interesting list indicating what is already very apparent. Video, short form, is the future. Bring on the class clowns!

Jason Calacanis requested an email interview when approached by a Wired journalist. The journalist refused. Jason refused otherwise. The interview compromise was a recorded telephone call to make everyone happy. I just find it interesting that the interviewee has leverage and that the journalist found a flexible solution. Well done folks.

How Social Software Works. First I paid to attend the Grand Prix of Houston. My whole family. Then I took creative commons photos and posted them on flickr. Then I noticed there wasn’t a flickr group for the Grand Prix of Houston so I created one. And invited others to join.

I think this post on friending being the new advertisement misses the point. Friending is the new advertising-intrusion-followed-by-rejection-with-a-few-accepts. Think Telemarketing. When a brand says "You don’t know me but I want to be your friend", and they have not contributed in any meaningful way to my network, that is an intrusion.

Ahhhhh, the attack approach and get rejected method. Isn’t that what banner ads tried to do before we all installed pop-up blockers? Just asking..

Let’s be clear. The guy was crazy. And hateful. And he wanted fame. And he succeeded because they ran the video. There is only one logical conclusion other crazy hateful people who want fame can draw from this. Record it, distribute it, and you will get your 15 minutes of MSM coverage.

Dave Winer, at scripting news, uses lots of words in a subsequent post to talk around the issue. But his original call for the release of the videos was wrong. There is right. And there is wrong. And that is wrong.

Twitter = one-to-many opt-in SMS. That should be in all social networks. Especially facebook to help students with crisis. And soldiers. And everyone who forms in groups – which is all of us.

The "use twitter for crisis" concept has been oft-repeated. My point is that like the Internet you can’t use one site for something so important. So it has to be distributed. So it is a feature of the various other sites.

On a side note, I twittered that first sentence first and then blogged it. And now to catch a plane from Chicago back to H-town.

Shoes. 16 million views of perhaps one of the stupidest music videos I have ever seen. 16 million. Did I mention 16 million?

So, if you are a PR person, what if at the end of an interview your CEO of a quirky brand tilted his head into the camera and said "shoes" in an odd way? Half the folks would think him nuts. The other half would realize he got the joke and think your quirky brand is cool. Weird, but cool. Because they "get it".

L. Scott Brogan is the political consultant and driving force behind the Brilliant Lecture series. Given I don’t swim in those circles I am curious about his role. You can’t just drop Sidney Poitier and Kofi Annan without a few connections.

Light posting the rest of the week as I am traveling (again). This time to Chicago so I’ll get a pizza and beer for you. Ya, just you.

Last thought – at the event it was no pictures. So you get a picture of the building. Despite everyone using their point-and-shoot cams to take 9999 photos. Frustrating. Why not just be progressive like NYC? Open photos – no flash? How hard is that? Grrrrr.

Specifically Prendergast mentioned an initiative called the “genocide Olympics“ which was an attempt to tie the next China Olympics to their complicity with the government of Darfur. It appears to be working. From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, April 12 “” For the past two years, China has protected the Sudanese
government as the United States and Britain have pushed for United
Nations Security Council sanctions against Sudan for the violence in Darfur.